Compressed air operated dispenser with hydraulic force multiplying means

ABSTRACT

A fluid product dispenser using compressed air as a dispensing medium. The device has a valve assembly with a valve body which has a compressed air flow path therethrough and a valve member movable in the valve body and obturating said compressed air flow path. Aspirating means is provided at one end of the compressed air flow path, and a product flow path extends from a product containing means to the aspirating means. The device has a hollow enclosure around the other end of the compressed air flow path, and a piston means closes the hollow enclosure. Either the piston means or the valve body is movable relative to the other for reducing the size of the hollow enclosure and for bringing the piston means and the valve member into engagement to move the valve member to open the compressed air flow path. Hydraulic force multiplying means is operatively associated with the piston means and valve body for moving the piston means and valve body relative to each other. The piston means engages the valve member for opening the compressed air flow path only after air between the piston and the valve body has been compressed.

United States Patent 1. p 11 1 88,556 Riccio [4 Jan. 29, 1974 COMPRESSED AIR OPE RATED DISPENSER Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, Jr.

WITH HYDRAULIC FORCE MULTIPLYING Assistant Examiner-John J. Love MEANS Attorney, Agent, or Firm-E. F. Wendetoth et al.

[75] Inventor: Pasquale R. Riccio, Salem, NH. ABSTRACT A fluid product dispenser using compressed air as a [73] Asslgne' g? Gelgy Corporation Ardsley dispensing medium. The device has a valve assembly v with a valve body which has a compressed air flow [22] Filed: Feb. 28, 1973 path therethrough and a valve member movable in the valve body and obturating said compressed air flow [21] Appl' 336699 path. Aspirating means is provided at one end of the Related US. Application Data compressed air flow path, and a product flow path ex- [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 240,026, March 31, tends from a Product Containing means to the aspirat' I972, abandoned. ing means. The device has a hollow enclosure around I the other end of the compressed air flow path, and a [52] U.S. Cl 239/349, 239/357, 222/193, piston means cl es th holl n l r Ei h the l I 222/383 piston means or the valve body is movable relative to [51] Int. Cl B05b 11/00 the other for reducing the size of the hollow enclosure [58] Field of Search 222/ 193, 379, 381, 383; and for bringing the piston means and the valve mem- 239/349, 355, 357, 360 ber into engagement to move the valve member to g open the compressed air flow path. Hydraulic force multiplying-means is operatively associated with the References Clted piston means and valve body for moving the piston UNITED STATES PATENTS means and valve body relative to each other. The pis- 2,540,010 1/1951 Peeps et al 239/357 x ton means engages the valve member for Opening the 3,101,905 8/1963 Hoenig 239 349 x compressed air flow pathonly after air between the 3,008,651- 11/1961 Follain..... 239/357 piston and the valve body has been compressed.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures I COMPRESSED AIR OPERATED DISPENSER WITH HYDRAULIC FORCE MULTIPLYING MEANS reaches a predetermined'value, at which point it is sud- I denly released to aspirate a fluid and dispense it as a spray. The device of the invention has a hydraulic force multiplying means for actuating the means for compressing air.

PRIOR ART There has recently been developed a type of dispenser for fluids which utilizes compressed air for dispensing fluids in the form of a spray. This dispenser gradually builds up the pressure of air, and when a predetermined pressure has been reached the compressed air is released suddenly for aspirating the fluid product as a spray.

There are many advantages to such a dispenser, among which are the-fact that a conventional aerosol type propellant, such as Freon, is unnecessary, whereby possible harm to users of the dispenser due to inhalation of the Freon propellant after it has been 'used to dispense the fluid is avoided. A further advantage is that such dispensers have .a shelf-life limited only by the shelf-life of the fluid product to be dispensed, since the air used to dispense the product is compressed by the user of the dispenser for each dispensing action. Such dispensers are disclosed in copending applications Ser. No. 44,694, now US. Pat. No. 3,672,345, and'Ser. No. 90,897, Nov. 11, 1970; 139,027, Apr. 30, 1971, and others.

In all of the various forms of the device as disclosed in the previously filed applications, the piston means for compressing the air is actuated directly by finger pressure by the user to move the piston relative to the elongated body of the device, or alternatively the elongated body is actuated directly by finger pressure to move relative to the piston means. While this is satisfactory for many uses, it sometimes occurs that a rather large pressure or a rather large amount of air under pressure must be produced to dispense the particular product to be dispensed by the device or to dispense the desired amount of product. Technical progress in the art would therefore be achieved if a dispenser of this type could be developed which would multiply the force which is produced by finger pressure in order to actuate a piston for producing air under high pressure or a large amount of air under pressure.

OBJECTS AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It'is an object of the present invention to provide an improved fluid product dispenser of the type described above which has a hydraulic force to operate the piston means to produce air'at a high pressure easily, or to produce a relatively large volume of air easily.

This object is achieved by an improved fluid product dispenser in which hydraulic finger actuated force multiplying meansare providedwhich are operatively associated with the piston means.

The fluid product dispenser according to the invention comprises a .valve assembly having a valve body which is preferably elongated and which has a compressed air flow path therethrough, a valve member movable in the valve body and obturating the compressed air flow path, aspirating means at one end of the compressed air flow path, the other end of the compressed air flow path opening out of the valve body remote from said aspirating means, a product containing means in the device and a product flow path through the device from the product containing means to the V aspirating means. A hollow enclosure surrounds the end of the valve body over the said other end of the compressed air flow path, and a piston means is provided in said hollow enclosure. Hydraulic force multiplying means is operatively associated with said device .for moving said valve body and piston means toward each other to compress air in said hollow enclosure to build up the pressure of the air within the enclosure in order to open the valve means to allow the compressed air to flow along the compressed air flow path.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The device as shown in the figures comprises a valve body 10 which has a longitudinally extending recess 1 1 therein which opens out of the bottom of the valve body in an enlarged recess 12. A passage 13 extends from the upper end ofthe recess 11 and is intersected by a lateral passage 14 having a larger diameter portion 15 opening out of the side of valve body 10. A Venturi nozzle insert 16 is positioned in the larger diameter portion 15 so as to define a product supply chamber 17 around the nozzle insert. The recesses 11 and 12 and the passages 13 and 14 form a compressed air flow path through the valve body to the nozzle insert 16. A product flow passage 18 extends upwardly from the product supply chamber 17 through the valve body 10 into the apex of a downwardly directed conical recess 18a in which is positioned a slit diaphragm 18b held in the recess 18a by a retaining ring 18c. A product containing means is provided in the form of a product containing space 19 into which therecess 18a opens. The upper end of valve body 10 is closed to close the product containing space l9.'-This can be done by a permanently attached closure member if the device will not be reused, or a removable screw top closure member if the device is to be reused.

Against the bottom of the valve body 10 over the recess 12 is an apertured gasket member 20 held in place by a retaining ring 21 force fitted within a flange 10a on the bottom of valve body 10. Above the gasket member is a poppet valve member 32 which is urged toward the gasket member 20 by a return spring 23 positioned in the recess 11.

Ahousing 24 is provided which has a larger diameter portion 25 and a smaller diameter portion 26 which is joined to the larger diameter portion by an offset portion 27. The valve body is slidably mounted within the larger diameter portion 25, and a sealing gasket 28 for sealing the space between the valve body 10 and the inner surface of the housing portion is provided adjacent the upper end of the valve body 10 and a ring gasket 28a is provided adjacent the lower end of the valve body 10. A hydraulic piston 30 is slidable within the smaller diameter portion 26 and has a sealing gasket 31 therearound for sealing the piston and the smaller diameter portion. An extension 29 is provided on the piston 30 which extends out of the smaller diameter portion 26 to permit application of finger pressure to the piston 20. Hydraulic fluid 32, for example water, oil, or other conventional hydraulic fluid, is provided within the smaller diameter portion 26.

Mounted in the open end of the larger diameter housing portion 25 is a piston 33, which is fixed in the open end by being force fitted therein, for example, and having a flange 34 bent over the free edge of the open end of the housing portion 25. The piston 33 and the lower end of the valve body 10 define between them a hollow enclosure 39 which functions as a cylinder in a manner to be described hereinafter. The piston 33 has an actuating pin 35 thereon which, when the piston and valve body approach each other extends through the aperture in the gasket member 29 and lifts the valve member 22 from the gasket member, thereby opening the compressed air flow path. A return spring 36 is positioned between the piston 33 and the valve body 10. Air return means is provided for said piston which comprises a flexible gasket 38 over a plurality of apertures 37 in the piston. The gasket 38 is retained on pin 35 by an undercut recess 35a, or alternatively by some added member such as a washer fixed to pin 35. The larger diameter portion 25 of the housing has an aperture therein which is aligned with the recess 15 when the valve body 10 and piston 33 are close together at the end of a compression stroke as shown in FIG. 2.

In operation the device is held between the thumb and a finger, the thumb preferably being against the piston 33 at the bottom of the housing 24 and the finger being on extension 29, and the device is squeezed between the thumb andfinger. The extension 29 is moved into the smaller diameter portion 26 and the pressure exerted on the hydraulic fluid 32 is transmitted therethrough to the valve body 10. The valve body 10 is moved toward piston 33, compressing air in the hollow enclosure 39. When the air pressure is at a maximum near the end of the stroke, the actuating pin 35 lifts the valve member 22, thus allowing the air compressed in the enclosure 39 to flow through the nozzle insert 16 and aspirate product past the slit diaphragm 18b, which I will flex downwardly into the recess 18a to open the slit therein, through the passage 18 and product supply chamber 17 and to spray it out of the nozzle insert through the aperture 25a, which is aligned with the recess 15. At the end of the compressed air flow, return spring 23 will seat valve member 22. Release of the finger pressure at the end of the spraying action allows the return spring 36 to return the valve body 10, hydraulic fluid 32 and piston 30 and extension 29 to their initial positions.

It will be seen that because the cross-sectional area of the larger diameter portion 25 and the valve body 10 which moves therein is larger than the cross-sectional area of the smaller diameter portion 26, the pressure on the hydraulic fluid 32 in the smaller diameter portion 26 is transmitted to the valve body 10 and is applied thereto over the entire cross-sectional area thereof. The force exerted on extension 29 to create said pressure is multiplied on the valve body 10 thereby making it possible to produce a higher air pressure in the hollow enclosure 39, or to compress a greater amount of air or both, with a given amount of finger pressure as compared to exerting the same pressure directly on the piston. The specific embodiment shown in the drawings functions to compresss air to a higher pressure by compressing a somewhat larger amount of air into a smaller space than for a similar device without the hydraulic force multiplying means. By making the stroke of the valve body toward the piston longer, a still larger amount of air can be compressed to a higher pressure.

It will be appreciated that while in the disclosed embodiment the hydraulic force multiplying means is positioned on the top of the device and acts to move the valve body within the housing 24, and the piston is fixed, it would be relatively simple to make the valve body fixed and the piston movable, and have the hydraulic force multiplying means act on the movable piston.

What is claimed is:

l. A fluid product dispenser comprising a valve assembly having a valve body which has a compressed air flow path therethrough, a valve member movable in the valve body and obturating said compressed air flow path, aspirating means at one end of the compressed air flow path, the other end of the compressed air flow path opening out of the valve body remote from said aspirating means, a product containing means in said device, said device having a product flow path therethrough from said product containing means to said aspirating means, said device having a hollow enclosure around said other end of said compressed air flow path, a piston means closing said hollow enclosure, one of said piston means and valve body being movable relative to the other for reducing the size of said hollow enclosure and for bringing said piston means and said valve member into engagement to move said valve member to open said compressed air flow path, and hydraulic force multiplying means operatively associated with the piston means and valve body for moving the piston means and valve body relative to each other, whereby the piston means engages the valve member for opening the compressed air flow path only after air between said piston and said valve body has been compressed.

2. A dispensing device as claimed in claim 1 in which said hydraulic force multiplying means comprises a housing associated with said device and having a larger diameter portion and a smaller diameter portion, a piston in said smaller diameter portion, and hydraulic fluid in said housing, said. hydraulic fluid being in contact with the one of the piston means and valve body which is movable.

3. A dispensing device as claimed in claim 2 in which said housing has said valve body slidably sealingly mounted therein and said piston means is fixed in said housing at an end remote from the smaller diameter portion, and said hydraulic fluid contacts said valve body on the end remote from the end exposed to said hollow enclosure, whereby force exerted on the piston of the hydraulic force multiplying means is multiplied and applied to the valve body for moving it toward the piston means for compressing air in said hollow enclosure. 

1. A fluid product dispenser comprising a valve assembly having a valve body which has a compressed air flow path therethrough, a valve member movable in the valve body and obturating said compressed air flow path, aspirating means at one end of the compressed air flow path, the other end of the compressed air flow path opening out of the valve body remote from said aspirating means, a product containing means in said device, said device having a product flow path therethrough from said product containing means to said aspirating means, said device having a hollow enclosure around said other end of said compressed air flow path, a piston means closing said hollow enclosure, one of said piston means and valve body being movable relative to the other for reducing the size of said hollow enclosure and for bringing said piston means and said valve member into engagement to move said valve member to open said compressed air flow path, and hydraulic force multiplying means operatively associated with the piston means and valve body for moving the piston means and valve body relative to each other, whereby the piston means engages the valve member for opening the compressed air flow path only after air between said piston and said valve body has been compressed.
 2. A dispensing device as claimed in claim 1 in which said hydraulic force multiplying means comprises a housing associated with said device and having a larger diameter portion and a smaller diameter portion, a piston in said smaller diameter portion, and hydraulic fluid in said housing, said hydraulic fluid being in contact with the one of the piston means and valve body which is movable.
 3. A dispensing device as claimed in claim 2 in which said housing has said valve body slidably sealingly mounted therein and said piston means is fixed in said housing at an end remote from the smaller diameter portion, and said hydraulic fluid contacts said valve body on the end remote from the end exposed to said hollow enclosure, whereby force exerted on the piston of the hydraulic force multiplying means is multiplied and applied to the valve body for moving it toward the piston means for compressing air in said hollow enclosure. 